12-07-2025
Giant pandas: Cute and cuddly, or at their best in the wild?
Unlike other species of bear, the giant panda does not hibernate in winter months. — PxHere photo
THE Malaysian government in March extended the loan agreement between China and Malaysia for two giant pandas, Fu Wa and Feng Yi, at Zoo Negara.
Then-Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the decision reflected the government's support for the pandas' continued presence, which has drawn significant interest from visitors to the national zoo.
Fu Wa and Feng Yi, also known by their Malaysian names Xing Xing and Liang Liang, were first loaned to Malaysia in 2014 to mark 40 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
It is a very kind gesture from China to loan these bears for world zoos to display in their enclosures for the public to view; for most people will never get the chance to see them in their natural habitats.
The closest I have ever been to a giant panda was in Singapore Zoo about nine years ago. God-willing, I hope to see them in the wild in China before I expire.
A once very threatened species of bear, now down listed to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of species facing extinction, this says much for their protection in China, where the giant panda is seen as the national animal and appears also in the logo of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Natural habitat
Pandas live at heights of between 1,500 metres and 3,250 metres in submontane, misty forests of south-central China, mostly in the Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. These bears have taken to these habitats having been forced out of lower land areas where they once lived.
This has been caused by increasing population pressure, industrial expansion, and the inevitable loss of its natural food source – bamboo!
Seedlings of this plant can take up to 20 years to mature before they meet a panda's dietary requirements.
The giant panda, like most bears, has the digestive system of a carnivore but this system has been adapted to eating young bamboo shoots for over 90 per cent of its diet, supplemented by other plants, bird's eggs, and small rodents. It consumes over 50kg of bamboo daily.
Defining characteristics
The best known of the two species of giant panda is that of the black and white variety (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) with its black fur around its eyes, ears, and each of its legs extending up over its shoulders.
The sub-species (Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis) lives exclusively in the Qinling Mountains, displaying a light and dark brown fur.
The former, when on all four legs, is about 91cm tall to its shoulders and up to 2.1 metres in length.
In its natural habitat, the male bears weigh up to 114kg, while females weigh a steady 100kg.
On its paws, a modified wrist bone provides a pseudo-thumb, which allows the panda to grip objects easily.
Unlike other species of bear, it does not hibernate in winter months but moves down to lower altitudes, and keeps cool in summer months by migrating higher up the submontane environment.
Breeding
Female pandas are sexually mature from four years old, giving birth up to the age of 20.
Whilst seen as pairs in zoos, they tend to live separate lives as male and female and really only get together for mating purposes when they attract each other by laying scents and with calls.
Usually, two cubs are born in the spring with only one strong enough to reach maturity. The cubs live with their mother for up to three years before making their own ways in life.
Visitors observing the giant panda, Feng Yi, at Zoo Negara on Aug 29, 2023. — Malay Mail photo
Preserving the native environment
China established its first giant panda nature reserve in 1963 and today there are very many such reserves.
It is a criminal offence to hunt pandas with very harsh penalties imposed for those caught poaching.
Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, has become the national and international 'panda capital of the world' as it has four giant panda sanctuaries containing 80 per cent of the world's such bears.
Tourists visiting that huge city of more than 20 million people are flabbergasted for the variety of products on sale, all inscribed or decorated with a panda motif.
Most importantly in that city is the Chengdu Research Centre of Giant Panda Breeding.
History of giant panda in the Western world
It was only 156 years ago that the western world first knew about this mammal from a French missionary, Armand David, who received a pelt from a hunter.
It took another 47 years before this species was observed and captured by a German zoologist on an expedition to China.
Sadly, the cub died shortly after capture. Twenty years later, in 1936, Ruth Harkness, an American fashion designer, socialite and expeditioner, brought a giant panda cub to live in Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, USA.
Beginning in 1984, China allowed zoos to keep giant pandas for 10 years, with each zoo paying up to US$1 million (RM4.236 million) each year for the lease and with a guarantee that any cubs born would be returned to China.
One can fully understand why China protects its own unique species and insists on these bears returning from foreign pastures.
These bears also once freely roamed mountainous areas of North Vietnam and Myanmar but no longer.
Today, these bears must be protected from extinction and whilst it is a great honour and wonderful to observe such animals in zoos, they need to be in their natural habitat.
The costs of keeping such bears in captivity to include air-conditioning and providing alternative sources of food together with the price per year that their native land imposes for their overseas stay runs into extraordinary figures.
Their future lies in their homeland, China – in its natural reserves, away from people and the very fast developments of the 21st century forever threatening these bears of their very existence.
I witnessed Eurasian Brown bears in captivity in bile farms in Transylvania, Romania in 1992 and seen them free, roaming in their natural habitats in the pine wood forests there and that is another tale, but I do know which environments bears prefer to live and well away from human interference.
